The present invention is directed to an optical cable network constructed with light waveguide cables for one or more transmission systems including ring systems, star systems and bus systems, said network comprising a plurality of existing and, respectively, planned connecting points for individual system nodes.
Local-area networks, which are referred to as LANs, are playing an increasing part within present-day communication system. The optical local networks constructed with light waveguides are of great significance in turn within these local area networks. Optical networks comprise a number of advantages over electrical networks. Among other things, a considerable simplified laying of the optical cable in comparison to laying of the electrical network occurs because of the smaller dimensions of the optical cable and because of the lower weight of the optical cable. This is opposed by a disadvantage in an optical network in comparison to electrical network that the interconnects and distribution of light waveguides is not as unproblematical as with electrical conductors because every connection in an optical network between two light waveguides leads to an attenuation loss.
The maximally allowable link attenuation in an optical cable network is determined by the output power of the transmitter and by the input sensitivity of the receiver. What is understood by link attenuation is the maximum loss on the path between two arbitrary terminals of a transmission system. The link attenuation is essentially composed of the line attenuation and of the auxiliary attenuations. The auxiliary attenuations are caused by aging, repair splices, optical distributors (attenuation per connector location of .ltoreq.1 dB), splices (0.1 -0.2 dB), optical relays (insertion attenuation of 1-1.5 dB) and by the shortening of the bridgeable link length due to dispersion in the light waveguide.
Within the present-day optical cable networks which comprise one or more transmission systems, the cabling of the light waveguides almost always occurs with the assistance of light waveguide distributors. These light waveguide distributors serve the purpose of branching light waveguide cables, as well as the purpose of problem-free reconfiguration or, respectively, connecting new optical fiber paths or optical fiber rings. Light waveguide distributors are also very frequently provided as a prior foundation for potential enlargement of the optical network.
When one assumes that a plug connection between two light waveguide leads can cause an additional attenuation of up to 1 dB, then the disadvantage of light waveguide distributors and plug connections are universally obvious for the set-up of optical cable networks.